Lighting up the Playhouse stage again

The award-winning All the Little Lights is to embark on a UK-wide tour following on from its successful premiere at Nottingham Playhouse.

Joanne and Lisa were like sisters. Then Lisa left. Now they’re back together for one last birthday party by the railway tracks. But can they salvage their friendship or will ghosts from the past haunt them forever?

Poignant, moving and darkly funny, Jane Upton’s award-winning play tells the searing story of three girls slipping through the cracks in society, desperately searching for friendship, family and themselves. In a world where nobody wants you, what would you do to survive?

Written with support from charity Safe and Sound, All The Little Lights premiered at Nottingham Playhouse in autumn 2015, and completed a short tour. Now it is being remounted for a UK-wide tour, reuniting the original cast and creative team.

Jane Upton was joint winner of the 2016 George Devine Award for Most Promising Playwright for All The Little Lights.

It is also nominated for Best Play at the 2016 Writers’ Guild Awards.

Laura Ford, artistic director of Fifth Word, said: “We’ve been developing this play with Jane for over two years to get it to this point and we’re immensely proud of what it has achieved so far.

“We’re thrilled to be embarking on a national tour and taking this piece to the wider audience it deserves.

“All The Little Lights tells an incredibly powerful story about the exploitation of young girls who can too easily remain invisible to us, and we need to talk about it and develop our understanding of how this is still happening.”

Of its original production, Nathalie Walters, chief executive of Safe & Sound said: “All the Little Lights is a hard-hitting play which illustrates both the complexity of child sexual exploitation and the long-term impact this abuse has on young people.”

All The Little Lights will be published by Nick Hern Books.

It can be seen at Nottingham Playhouse from February 7-11. For ticket details, contact the box office on 0115 941 9419 or go to www.nottinghamplayhouse.co.uk